Chaenomeles flowering quince

Flowering quince. John Rawlings

Dreadfully tangled shrubs, sometimes thorny, with clumps of fallen leaves trapped within that must forever be picked out by hand or simply tolerated, are redeemed by flowers of spectacular beauty – among the earliest to bloom, usually in January or February. Cultivars and hybrids of several eastern Asian species range in height and flower color: red, coral, salmon, pink, and white. Compared with common quince (Cydonia oblonga), the fruits are smaller, the leaf margins serrated rather than smooth, and the leaf bases furnished with large, rounded stipules.

Low shrubs with brilliant coral-red blossoms touched with salmon-pink grow on Mayfield Avenue near Grove, planted beside the old gates of the road that once led to the former town of Mayfield. A taller, more upright cultivar with pink-tinged white flowers stands near the door at the southeast corner of Pine Hall. One dubbed ‘Stanford Red’, of uncertain origin, was once commonly planted, including along Galvez Street and on Campus Drive at the Visitor Center.

Illustrations: habit (John Rawlings, 11 Jan 2005).